Georgia's story

Two-year-old Georgia is, her mum Laura says, a ‘complete treasure’ – a confident and chatty little girl who loves swimming and ballet and already says that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

“She loves being a patient too,” Laura says. “Which is just as well really, as Georgia has Crohn’s disease.”

Children with Crohn’s disease can experience a range of symptoms such as diarrhoea, tummy pain and tiredness due to inflammation of the gut. The condition affects at least 115,000 people in the UK.

Children tend to have more severe symptoms than adults and the condition can have a significant impact on their growth, schooling and psychological wellbeing.

Georgia was a healthy baby but at around 12 months old, her stools became looser and she developed a severe rash on her arms and legs. After Georgia became very unwell with a high temperature and was admitted to hospital, tests to establish the cause of the rash were arranged.

Procedures under general anaesthetic confirmed doctors’ suspicions and Georgia was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Sadly, Georgia will have the disease for life and is likely to have recurrent flare-ups.

Georgia takes medicine three times a day to soothe her digestive system. She has good days and bad days, her mum says: “On a good day, her stools are solid, although she still needs to move her bowels at least three times a day. On a bad day, her stools will be very loose and ‘explosive’ all day long.”

Little Georgia is helping to create a more hopeful future for children with Crohn’s disease by taking part in Action funded research at Southampton Children’s Hospital – work that Laura describes as ‘amazing’: